Midjourney Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Sarah Mitchell | Last updated: July 21, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Midjourney generated an estimated $500 million in revenue during 2025 — a 66.7% year-over-year increase from $300 million in 2024 — with approximately 21 million registered users, a 26.8% share of the global AI image generation market, and a headcount of roughly 107 people. All from subscriptions. No marketing budget. No outside investors.
Quick Answer
Midjourney’s 2025 revenue is estimated at $500 million, up from $300 million in 2024 (PitchBook) and $200 million in 2023. The platform has approximately 21 million registered users as of mid-2025, holds an estimated 26.8% global market share in AI image generation, and runs on four subscription tiers priced $10–$120/month (verified from official Midjourney documentation, retrieved July 2026). The current default model is V8.1, released April 30, 2026.
Key Findings
- Midjourney’s estimated 2025 revenue of $500 million represents a 900% increase from its $50 million 2022 debut year, achieved without a single dollar of venture capital or traditional marketing spend, according to analysis by Axis Intelligence Research cross-referencing PitchBook data, Sacra research, and David Holz’s public disclosures.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation, Midjourney generates an estimated $4.67 million in revenue per employee — based on the $500 million 2025 revenue estimate and a mid-range headcount of 107 — placing it among the highest revenue-per-employee ratios in enterprise software.
- Midjourney holds an estimated 26.8% share of the global AI image generation market as of 2025, ahead of DALL-E at 24.4%, placing it first in AI image generator preference surveys across multiple industry analyses.
- Axis Intelligence Research estimates approximately 1.39 million paying subscribers support the $500 million ARR figure at a blended average subscription price of $30/month — a cross-source calculation combining Sacra’s subscriber modeling with Midjourney’s publicly available pricing tiers.
- On June 11, 2025, Disney, NBCUniversal, and DreamWorks filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging the platform trained its models on their copyrighted characters — the first such lawsuit from major Hollywood studios against a generative AI image company.
How Much Revenue Does Midjourney Make?
Midjourney’s revenue trajectory is the clearest proof that subscription-first, community-first AI can reach scale without institutional capital. PitchBook reported $300 million in 2024 total revenue. Multiple analyst reports, including Sacra and Contrary Research, place 2025 revenue at approximately $500 million — a 66.7% single-year jump. Midjourney CEO David Holz confirmed to The Information that revenue had “significantly surpassed $200M” (the 2023 figure); subsequent figures from PitchBook and analyst estimates for 2024 and 2025 track a consistent upward trajectory.
| Year | Estimated Revenue | YoY Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $50 million | — | Contrary Research |
| 2023 | $200 million | +300% | Sacra, Contrary Research |
| 2024 | $300 million | +50% | PitchBook |
| 2025 | ~$500 million | +66.7% | Analyst consensus |
Sources: PitchBook (2024 figure); Sacra; analyst estimates for 2025. Midjourney is a private company and does not publish audited financials.
The $200 million–$300 million–$500 million staircase is notable for what it wasn’t: there was no Series A to fund a growth team, no marketing blitz, no acquisition. Holz told reporters the company was already profitable within six months of its July 2022 public launch. That profitability funded every model generation since.
Revenue Per Employee: The Axis Intelligence Research Efficiency Metric
According to Axis Intelligence Research, the most analytically useful way to benchmark Midjourney’s business model isn’t its absolute revenue — it’s what it produces per person. Using the $500 million 2025 estimate and a mid-range headcount of 107 employees (the figure most consistently cited across LinkedIn-traceable counts and analyst reports):
Revenue per employee = $500,000,000 ÷ 107 = $4.67 million
For wider context, the headcount is reported inconsistently: Sacra places early 2024 headcount at 40–45; other analysts cite 107–163 by mid-2025 depending on methodology. The $4.67 million figure uses the 107 count; at 163 employees the figure is $3.07 million — still exceptional. Either way, Axis Intelligence Research finds no publicly traded creative software company that matches this ratio at comparable scale. According to Axis Intelligence Research, this efficiency stems from three structural choices: Discord as zero-cost distribution infrastructure, a subscription model that front-loads revenue collection before compute is consumed, and the deferral of enterprise sales infrastructure that most SaaS companies build from the start.
Source: Axis Intelligence Research — CC BY 4.0
How Many Users Does Midjourney Have?
Total Registered Users
The most-cited figure for Midjourney’s registered user count is approximately 21 million, sourced from its Discord server membership. Multiple analyst sources — DemandSage, CompaniesHistory, VentureBeat — place the figure between 19.83 million (January 2026, DemandSage) and 21 million (mid-2025). TIME magazine’s 2025 writeup on David Holz stated the platform had “amassed over 20 million users.” Disney and Universal’s June 2025 lawsuit filing cited “almost 21 million users as of September 2024.”
What the user count actually measures: the Discord server member count is the closest available proxy for registered users. It excludes users who access the web app without joining the server, meaning it may undercount the true registered base post-August 2024 web app launch.
| Milestone | Registered Users | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | — | July 2022 |
| First 1 million | 1 million | ~January 2023 |
| 2023 year-end | 17.5 million | December 2023 |
| 2024 year-end | 19.26 million | December 2024 |
| Early 2025 | ~21 million | March 2025 |
| As reported by Disney lawsuit | ~21 million | September 2024 |
Source: DemandSage (Discord server tracking); Disney/Universal complaint (September 2024 figure); TIME (2025).
Daily Active Users
Daily active users (DAU) are estimated at 1.2 million to 2.5 million across sources. A Content Detector report placed concurrent active users at approximately 1.1 million at any given moment. The platform sees DAU spikes of 20–30% on major model release dates. At 21 million total registered users, this implies a DAU-to-registered ratio in the 6–12% range — consistent with creative tool platforms where users return for specific project work rather than daily habit formation.
Demographics
Midjourney’s user base skews male and young. Similarweb data (March 2026) places the gender split at 59.94% male and 40.06% female. Age distribution data from analyst reports places the 25–34 cohort at roughly 37% of users, with 61% of all users under 34 — aligning with the platform’s strong foothold among digital creatives, designers, and marketing professionals.
Geographic Distribution
The United States leads web traffic to midjourney.com, accounting for roughly 21.86% of all visitors — approximately 3.61 million monthly visitors at peak. China, South Korea, India, Germany, and Brazil follow. YouTube drives 41.12% of all social media referrals; Facebook contributes 12.10%; Reddit generates 9.77%.
| Country | Traffic Share |
|---|---|
| United States | ~21.86% |
| China | ~6.14% |
| Republic of Korea | ~8.30% (peak) |
| India | ~4.52% |
| Germany | ~4.07%–4.08% |
| Brazil | ~3.98% |
Sources: Similarweb (cited via DemandSage, Electroiq, SQ Magazine); figures cover 2025 reporting periods.
What Is Midjourney’s Market Share in AI Image Generation?
The Market Position
According to Axis Intelligence Research’s review of published AI image generator preference surveys, Midjourney holds an estimated 26.8% share of the global AI image generation market — ahead of DALL-E at 24.4%, NightCafe at 23.2%, and Stable Diffusion at 15.1%. These figures come from AI image generator preference surveys and usage analyses rather than verified platform revenue data, so they measure mindshare and primary-tool designation rather than exact generation volume.
| Platform | Estimated Market Share | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | 26.8% | Subscription SaaS |
| DALL-E (OpenAI) | 24.4% | API + ChatGPT bundled |
| NightCafe | 23.2% | Freemium |
| Stable Diffusion | 15.1% | Open source |
| Others | ~10.5% | Various |
Source: AI image generator preference surveys cited across CompaniesHistory, Morphed.app, and analyst reports (2025). Methodology note: market share estimates in AI image generation are survey-based, not audited. Treat as directional.
What’s worth noting here: DALL-E’s 24.4% is bundled across ChatGPT Plus, the API, and Microsoft’s Copilot ecosystem — three separate distribution channels with no paid image-only subscription requirement. That Midjourney holds parity with that combined footprint, through a paid-only subscription with a $10 floor and no free tier since 2023, is a meaningful commercial signal. It suggests the 26.8% figure reflects genuine preference rather than incidental usage.
The Meta Partnership: A New Market Signal
On August 22, 2025, Meta announced a licensing agreement with Midjourney — the startup’s first known partnership with a major tech platform. Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, stated the company would “license their aesthetic technology for our future models and products.” According to Bloomberg’s August 22, 2025 report, financial terms were not disclosed. The deal confirms an industry judgment that Midjourney’s output quality — specifically its aesthetic coherence and stylistic consistency — is difficult to replicate internally, even at Meta’s scale and compute budget.
Midjourney CEO David Holz confirmed the company remains independent, community-backed, and has taken no outside investment despite the licensing arrangement.
Midjourney Subscription Plans and Pricing
Midjourney operates a pure subscription model — no per-image pricing, no free tier, no API access as of mid-2026. All pricing below is verified from official Midjourney documentation (docs.midjourney.com, retrieved July 2026).
Plan Comparison (Official, Verified July 2026)
| Plan | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Fast GPU Time | Relax Mode | Stealth Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $10/month | $96/year ($8/mo) | 3.3 hours (200 min) | None | No |
| Standard | $30/month | $288/year ($24/mo) | 15 hours | Unlimited images | No |
| Pro | $60/month | $576/year ($48/mo) | 30 hours | Unlimited images + SD video | Yes |
| Mega | $120/month | $1,152/year ($96/mo) | 60 hours | Unlimited images + SD video | Yes |
Source: Midjourney official documentation, docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/27870484040333-Comparing-Midjourney-Plans, retrieved July 2026.
Critical distinction: Midjourney charges for GPU time, not images. A single image generation costs roughly 0.8–1.3 GPU minutes depending on resolution and model version. Basic plan users generating standard images receive approximately 200 generations per month in Fast mode. Standard plan users get roughly 900 fast-mode generations, plus unlimited generations in Relax mode (queue-based, slower).
Additional Fast GPU time is available on any plan at $4 per hour. Companies earning more than $1 million annually in gross revenue must use the Pro or Mega plan under Midjourney’s commercial terms.
The Blended ARPU Calculation
According to Axis Intelligence Research’s cross-source analysis: if the $500 million 2025 revenue estimate is accurate, and the blended average monthly subscription price across all paying users is approximately $30 (consistent with Sacra’s modeling of subscriber distribution across tiers), the implied subscriber base is approximately 1.39 million paying subscribers. This means roughly 6.6% of the 21 million registered user base is currently converting to paid subscriptions — a reasonable conversion rate for a platform with no free tier and no free trial since March 2023.
Formula: Implied subscribers = $500,000,000 ÷ ($30/month × 12 months) ≈ 1,388,889
Inputs: 2025 revenue estimate ($500M) from analyst consensus; blended ARPU ($30/month) from Sacra modeling; subscriber conversion rate derived. All three figures carry estimation uncertainty and should be treated as a triangulation, not an audited result.
Midjourney Model History: From V1 to V8.1
The model release cadence is one of the clearest explanations for Midjourney’s revenue growth. Each major version release correlates with DAU spikes of 20–30% and typically drives subscription upgrades as users experience quality improvements.
Version Timeline (Official Dates Verified from Midjourney Documentation)
| Version | Release Date | Default From | Key Addition |
|---|---|---|---|
| V1 | February 2022 | Open beta | Initial text-to-image |
| V5 | March 2023 | March 2023 | Photorealistic step-change |
| V6 | December 20, 2023 | February 14, 2024 | Enhanced prompt accuracy |
| V6.1 | July 30, 2024 | July 30, 2024 | 25% faster than V6 |
| V7 | April 3, 2025 | June 17, 2025 | Draft Mode, Omni Reference, personalization on by default |
| V8.0 (Alpha) | March 17, 2026 | — | Photorealism rebuild |
| V8.1 | April 30, 2026 | June 10–11, 2026 | 4–5x faster, native 2K HD images |
Source: Midjourney official documentation (docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/32199405667853-Version), retrieved July 2026; Midjourney update announcements (updates.midjourney.com).
V7: The Architecture Rebuild (April 2025)
Midjourney announced V7’s alpha on April 3, 2025. The official announcement described it as using “a completely different architecture” — not an incremental update. Key changes from the official release notes: text and image prompts handled with greater precision; richer textures; improved coherence in hands, bodies, and objects; model personalization turned on by default (requiring approximately five minutes to unlock); Draft Mode introduced (half the GPU cost, 10x the speed); Omni Reference introduced. V7 became the default model on June 17, 2025, and was the primary interface for generating the video V1 launch.
V8.1: The Current Default (April–June 2026)
V8.1 released on midjourney.com on April 30, 2026, and became the default model on June 10–11, 2026. According to official Midjourney documentation, V8.1 renders standard jobs approximately 4–5 times faster than earlier versions, adds native 2K (2048×2048) HD image generation at 1.3 GPU minutes per image, and improves prompt adherence. Draft Mode reached V8.1 on June 16, 2026 — 24 images per draft at half the Fast-mode GPU hours.
Video Generation: V1 (June 2025)
On June 18, 2025, Midjourney launched its first video model, also called V1 — distinct from the image V1 generation. The video V1 is an image-to-video model. According to TechCrunch’s reporting on the launch: the model generates four five-second clips from a static image, which can each be extended in four-second increments up to a maximum of 21 seconds. Technical specs from SiliconAngle: 24fps, supports aspect ratios 16:9, 1:1, and 9:16. Video generation costs approximately eight times the GPU time of a standard image. David Holz described the launch as “a stepping stone” toward AI capable of “real-time open-world simulations.”
Video generation is included in the $10 Basic plan in standard definition; HD video is available on Standard, Pro, and Mega plans. Unlimited Relax mode video generation is available on Pro and Mega plans.
The Discord-to-Web Platform Shift
Midjourney launched in July 2022 exclusively through Discord, using the /imagine command. For two years, the Discord bot was the only interface. In August 2024, Midjourney launched a standalone web application at midjourney.com, providing a Canva-style dashboard for image creation, organization, and editing without Discord literacy requirements.
The web app’s significance for user and revenue growth is structural: it eliminates the Discord learning curve that market researchers consistently identified as a primary barrier to non-technical user adoption. DemandSage’s tracking shows the registered user count stood at 17.5 million in December 2023, reached 19.26 million by December 2024, and crossed 21 million by mid-2025. The 3.76 million additions in the 18 months spanning the web app launch is consistent with an expanded addressable audience — though the concurrent release of V6.1 (July 2024) and V7 (April 2025) means the contribution of each factor cannot be cleanly isolated.
Midjourney’s Legal Position: The Hollywood Lawsuit
On June 11, 2025, Disney, NBCUniversal (including DreamWorks), filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, case number 2:25-cv-05275. CNBC’s reporting confirmed this as the first copyright action against a generative AI image company from major Hollywood studios. The 110-page complaint alleged Midjourney trained its models on copyrighted characters — Darth Vader, Homer Simpson, Elsa, Shrek, the Minions — and enables users to generate unauthorized reproductions.
Disney’s Chief Legal Officer, Horacio Gutierrez, stated in the suit: “Piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing,” as quoted in Variety’s June 11, 2025 coverage. Midjourney filed its defense in August 2025, centering on transformative fair use — the argument that AI training from copyrighted data is qualitatively different from reproduction. On November 4, 2025, the court consolidated the Disney/Universal action with a separate copyright lawsuit filed by Warner Bros. entities against Midjourney, as documented by Forensis Group’s litigation tracker.
According to Axis Intelligence Research’s reading of publicly available filings, the consolidated case is on track for a 2026–2027 discovery period with no trial date set as of July 2026. The outcome could materially affect the training data practices of every AI image company operating in the United States — not only Midjourney.
Midjourney Compared to Its Competitors
The Bootstrapped Outlier Problem
According to Axis Intelligence Research, Midjourney’s competitive position is structurally unusual: it reaches the top of the AI image generation market with zero venture capital, while every major competitor is institutionally backed. Adobe Firefly sits within a $20+ billion creative cloud ecosystem; DALL-E is embedded in ChatGPT Plus and the Microsoft Copilot suite; Stable Diffusion derives its competitive position from open-source distribution, not revenue. Runway raised $141 million by 2024. Google’s Veo is a product line of a $2 trillion company.
The competitive pressure running the other direction is also real. Midjourney has no free tier. Adobe Firefly offers 500 free monthly generations within Canva for 180+ million monthly active users. DALL-E is bundled into subscriptions users are already paying for. None of these competitors compete primarily on the quality dimension that Midjourney has historically owned — which is exactly why Meta paid to license Midjourney’s aesthetic technology rather than deploy its own.
The question for 2026 is whether V8.1’s photorealism improvements open a mass commercial market where Midjourney has been weakest — brand-safe, compliance-cleared enterprise content generation. Without an enterprise plan, a clear IP indemnification offer, or an API, that market remains largely uncaptured.
Midjourney Funding and Valuation
Midjourney has raised zero external funding since its founding in August 2021. David Holz has maintained this posture publicly and explicitly — including rejecting acquisition interest from Meta, the same company that eventually licensed Midjourney’s technology in August 2025. The company was profitable within six months of its July 2022 public launch, according to Holz’s August 2022 interview with The Register.
The absence of a disclosed funding round means no externally validated valuation exists. Various analyst reports project a theoretical valuation in the range of $10 billion using comparable SaaS multiples on the $500 million revenue estimate — but no transaction has occurred to confirm this figure. Sacra’s company profile notes Midjourney received a reported $50 million in 2025 (as a research note figure), though this conflicts with multiple other reports confirming zero outside investment. Axis Intelligence Research treats the zero-external-funding posture as the most consistently documented fact, and treats any valuation figure as an estimate.
Methodology
Axis Intelligence Research assembled this dataset by fetching and reading primary and high-quality secondary sources during the production session for this article (July 2026). No statistic is sourced from model training memory.
Revenue figures: The 2024 figure ($300 million) is from PitchBook, as reported by Forbes. The 2025 figure (~$500 million) is an analyst consensus estimate across multiple sources (Sacra, Contrary Research, analyst aggregators); Midjourney has not published audited financials. The 2023 figure ($200 million) is from Sacra’s ARR estimate, consistent with Holz’s “significantly surpassed $200M” disclosure to The Information. The 2022 figure ($50 million) is from Contrary Research. All figures are labeled estimates where they originate from secondary analysis rather than direct company disclosure.
User counts: Based on Discord server membership tracking by DemandSage (primary tracker), cross-referenced with TIME magazine’s 2025 writeup and the Disney/Universal lawsuit filing (which cited “almost 21 million” as of September 2024).
Market share figures: Sourced from AI image generator preference surveys aggregated by CompaniesHistory and Morphed.app (2025). These are survey-based estimates, not audited share figures. They measure stated primary-tool preference, not generation volume.
Headcount: Multiple sources offer different counts (40–45 in Sacra’s early 2024 profile; 107 in multiple analyst mid-2025 reports; 163 in some SQ Magazine analysis). The 107 figure is used in the AREI calculation as the most consistently cited mid-2025 estimate.
Subscription pricing: Verified directly from Midjourney’s official documentation at docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/27870484040333-Comparing-Midjourney-Plans, retrieved July 2026.
Model version history: Verified directly from Midjourney’s official documentation at docs.midjourney.com/hc/en-us/articles/32199405667853-Version and updates.midjourney.com, retrieved July 2026.
The Axis Revenue Efficiency Index (AREI): A proprietary Axis Intelligence Research metric. Formula: (Annual Revenue ÷ Headcount) ÷ $1,000,000. Applied using the $500M 2025 revenue estimate and 107-employee headcount. Inputs carry estimation uncertainty (revenue is estimated; headcount varies by source). The AREI is labeled an estimate and is intended as a benchmarking tool rather than a precise financial measure. Midjourney does not publish headcount or revenue data; all AREI inputs are derived from analyst estimates and secondhand disclosures.
Implied subscriber count: A cross-source Axis Intelligence Research calculation. Formula: Annual Revenue ÷ (Blended Monthly ARPU × 12). Blended ARPU of $30/month comes from Sacra’s subscriber modeling. Interpretation: a structural estimate, not observed data.
Limitations: Midjourney is private and publishes no financial disclosures. All revenue, subscriber, and valuation figures are estimates. Market share figures are survey-based. Headcount varies significantly by source. The copyright lawsuit status reflects publicly available court filings as of July 2026 and is not legal advice.
About This Dataset
This dataset covers Midjourney’s revenue trajectory (2022–2025), subscriber and user metrics, subscription pricing, model version history, market share, and key business events through July 2026. It is assembled from primary sources (official Midjourney documentation, court filings) and verified secondary analysis (PitchBook, Sacra, Contrary Research, analyst reports). All figures include source attribution, as-of dates, and methodology notes for reproducibility.
License: CC BY 4.0. You are free to share and adapt this data for any purpose, including commercial use, provided you credit: Axis Intelligence Research, Midjourney Statistics 2026, axis-intelligence.com.
Last updated: July 2026
Cite this dataset:
APA: Axis Intelligence Research. (2026). Midjourney Statistics 2026: Revenue, Users, Market Share & Growth Data. axis-intelligence.com. https://axis-intelligence.com/midjourney-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research. “Midjourney Statistics 2026: Revenue, Users, Market Share & Growth Data.” Axis Intelligence Research, July 2026, axis-intelligence.com/midjourney-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research. “Midjourney Statistics 2026: Revenue, Users, Market Share & Growth Data.” Axis Intelligence Research, July 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/midjourney-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much revenue does Midjourney make?
Midjourney’s estimated 2025 revenue is approximately $500 million, representing a 66.7% increase from the $300 million PitchBook reported for 2024. The company does not publish audited financials. The trajectory: $50 million in 2022, $200 million in 2023, $300 million in 2024, and approximately $500 million in 2025 — all generated from subscriptions alone.
How many users does Midjourney have?
Midjourney has approximately 21 million registered users as of mid-2025, tracked primarily through Discord server membership. Daily active users are estimated at 1.2 million to 2.5 million depending on model release cycles and community events.
Is Midjourney profitable?
Yes. Midjourney CEO David Holz confirmed the company was profitable within six months of its July 2022 public launch, in a statement to The Register in August 2022. The company has remained self-funded and profitable on subscription revenue alone.
How much does Midjourney cost?
Midjourney offers four subscription tiers: Basic ($10/month), Standard ($30/month), Pro ($60/month), and Mega ($120/month). Annual billing provides a 20% discount across all tiers. There is no free plan and no free trial as of 2026. All pricing is verified from official Midjourney documentation.
Who owns Midjourney?
Midjourney is privately owned and independently operated. It was founded in August 2021 by David Holz, who remains CEO. The company has never taken outside investment. In August 2025, Meta licensed Midjourney’s aesthetic technology, but this is a licensing agreement — Midjourney retained full independence and Holz confirmed no equity was involved.
What is the current version of Midjourney?
The current default model is V8.1, which released on April 30, 2026, and became the default on June 10–11, 2026. V8.1 is Midjourney’s fastest model, rendering standard jobs approximately 4–5 times faster than earlier versions, and it supports native 2K (2048×2048) image generation without a separate upscale step. V7 remains selectable.
Does Midjourney have a free plan?
No. Midjourney removed its free trial in 2023 and has been subscription-only since. The lowest-cost entry point is the $10/month Basic plan ($8/month if billed annually).
What is Midjourney’s market share?
According to AI image generator preference surveys aggregated across multiple analyst reports (2025), Midjourney holds approximately 26.8% of the global AI image generation market — ahead of DALL-E at 24.4%, NightCafe at 23.2%, and Stable Diffusion at 15.1%. These are survey-based estimates rather than audited share figures.
Why did Meta partner with Midjourney?
Meta announced a licensing agreement with Midjourney on August 22, 2025, to access what Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang described as Midjourney’s “aesthetic technology” for Meta’s future models and products. The deal was reported by Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Financial Times. Financial terms were not disclosed. The partnership is a licensing arrangement; Midjourney remains independent and Holz retained all equity.
What is the Disney lawsuit against Midjourney?
On June 11, 2025, Disney, NBCUniversal, and DreamWorks filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (case 2:25-cv-05275). The studios allege Midjourney trained its AI models on their copyrighted characters without authorization, enabling users to generate unauthorized copies. Warner Bros. filed a separate action later consolidated with the original case on November 4, 2025. Midjourney is defending on fair use grounds.